How many minutes are there in a day! The public is getting a bit fed-up with spending it wading through “stuff” they have no interest in. And marketers seem to be more focused on their need “to get stuff delivered into the inbox”, than my need - to be certain I’m not “again” wasting my precious time! When will they ever understand that I will be far more likely to find their contact interesting if my inbox were clean - And don’t cripple my free email experience doing it.

The solution is easy – If you want the respect of a customer you “must” be proactive in earning it. Here in is the problem and I’ve articulated it many times in the past.

When one thinks of the concept of Trust, the image that appears is usually personal. I trust my father, I trust my friend, I trust my co-worker, or I trust my accountant. How quickly does your level of trust diminish when it's separated by some number of degrees of separation? For example, would you trust your co-worker's accountant with the same level of trust as your own accountant, or would you trust your friend's friend as much as you trust your own friend?

With the prise of gas sky rocketing I cannot even begin to elaborate on the frustration I feel over this new, never the less, here are some facts:

1) The X-Prize Foundation positions to offer a $25M dollar prize to a commercial organization that designs, builds and sells 10K vehicles that get 250 MPG or more.
2) This prize ferrets out news (at least this was news to me), that VW has already produced a concept vehicle (in 2002 no less) that gets 264MPG.
3) The above information prompts to investigate other VW models where I found what I suspected. In Germany, VW manufactures the Lupo 3L TDI. While most would think that the 3L stands for 3Liter 'engine' it does not. The meaning comes from it's World Record Holding MPG at the pump. 3Liters/100Kilometers OR 77 MPG. Now, here's the kicker, quoted direct from the VW website: "As its name implies, the Lupo 3L TDI makes do with just 3.0 litres of diesel fuel per 100 kilometres, while at the same time possessing the advantages of a car fully suitable for everyday use: four seats, sufficient boot space, good performance, good comfort, and equipped with all the crucial safety features including ESP."

The costs of VoIP spam (or SPIT as it's called) has started to mount. The most recent hard cost being $600K (which the US public will bare in taxes) to perform a study on VoIP abuse:

Let's face it, there are three choices:

1) Hide your VoIP phone number - In other words; Let's live under a rock.
2) Figure out how we can spam filter VoIP - Sure, this has worked great for email. Haha!
3) Force senders to "respect" recipients with a simple process of small cash guarantees. (You're already paying something for the call - even if a monthly fee - so why not pledge a small 5cent guarantee to prove to the recipient you're not a spammer dropping thousands (even millions) of VoIP messages with a single mouse click. As a respectful caller you'd not be frightened because your guarantee would never be taken by the recipient and therefore would return back to your VoIP account minutes after you hang up.)

Ok, Now I thought for sure Seth would be the first to say,- ˜just empower the consumer." But he did not . Now, I am a big fan of Seth and his insight regarding consumer respect. I've read many of his books and consider him a marketing genius, but Seth, this time your suggested "solution" is premature and incomplete.

They'll attempt it every time - dressing a wolf in sheep's clothing. But, what they under estimate now is the power of web and the ability to get the truth out there very quickly.

GoodMail Systems, AOL and Yahoo claim they will aid in the battle against spam by implementing a system that forces the "good" guys to pay for the delivery of email.

Hum? What's wrong this picture?

Consider some simple questions:
1) What will be the affects of charging marketers "that you want to hear from" for the privilege of delivering information that you want? (Keep in mind things like: That free newsletter you asked for, or that email alert with special offers, etc..)

This is normality at work - Mostly due to the majority forging on to make "things" work instead of complaining.

Case in point - The staunch anti-spammers say:

- Emarketers haven't the right to use email to reach out to customers.
- Emarketers are destroying email with spam.
- ISPs aren't doing enough to shut down spammers.

Well, the facts are:

- Most of the Internet population likes the emails they get from their desired marketing sources. (I personally like the email catalogs and sales flyers I get from "desirable" sources. It gives me a quick glimpse of items that I'd otherwise not be aware of.)